{"id":71552,"date":"2017-11-12T21:46:05","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T03:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=71552"},"modified":"2017-11-12T14:39:48","modified_gmt":"2017-11-12T21:39:48","slug":"the-constitution-of-the-anuradhapura-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/11\/12\/the-constitution-of-the-anuradhapura-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"The Constitution of the Anuradhapura Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dharshan Weerasekera, Attorney-at-Law<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2018Statutes are designed to meet the fugitive exigencies of the hour.\u00a0 A Constitution states or ought to state not rules for the passing hour, but principles for an expanding future.\u2019 – Benjamin Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process<\/em><\/p>\n

Author\u2019s note<\/em><\/strong>:\u00a0 The present paper is part of a proposed 2-Volume work titled, \u2018The Principles that Must Guide a Future Constitution of Sri Lanka<\/strong>.\u2019 Volume-1 deals with Western constitutional principles \u2013 i.e. Westminster Parliamentary principles, American separation of powers doctrine, and so on \u2013 which form an integral part of the constitutional history of this country.\u00a0 It is impossible to entirely disengage oneself from that tradition if and when a new Constitution is drafted.<\/p>\n

However, there is now widespread recognition among many Sri Lankans that, whatever may be the value of western constitutional principles, as far as Sri Lanka is concerned, they have not produced the expected results, such as ensuring the rule of law, good governance and so on.\u00a0 Therefore, it is necessary to turn to the older constitutional traditions of this country in order to see whether they can supply what the western principles have thus far failed to deliver.<\/p>\n

The purpose of Volume \u2013 2 is to explore some of those ancient constitutional principles.\u00a0 I focus on the Anuradhapura Kingdom \u2013 for purposes of this work defined as the period spanning roughly 65 AD \u2013 460 AD (Vasabha to Datusena).\u00a0 It is a period that is generally considered the most prosperous and peaceful in the long history of this country, and so the best period from which to extract principles that might be useful for today.\u00a0 In the present paper, I endeavor to recreate the Constitution of the Anuradhapura Kingdom as it might have looked had it been written out in a single document.<\/p>\n

In a future paper, I propose to comment on the different aspects of the Anuradhapura Constitution recreated here \u2013 for instance, the nature of the State, relations between the Centre and the Provinces, and so on \u2013 with respect to whether the principles that underpinned those particular aspects Constitution are still valid today, and if so, how we can incorporate those ancient principles into a modern Sri Lanka Constitution designed to meet the political, economic and social needs of the present.<\/p>\n

I urge readers not to nitpick too much over the historical details set out here.\u00a0 I am no historian.\u00a0 I am mainly interested in getting at the principles behind the various institutions of State to the extent such principles can be extracted from the relevant historical facts.\u00a0 However, if I have got either the facts or the principles wrong, I request readers, especially those with technical knowledge in fields such as ancient Sri Lankan history, archeology, epigraphy and philology, to tell me where I\u2019m wrong, and point me towards the relevant source material.<\/p>\n

The Constitution of the Anuradhapura Kingdom <\/strong><\/p>\n

Contents:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The State<\/li>\n
  2. Territory of the State<\/li>\n
  3. Central and Provincial Governments<\/li>\n
  4. The Law<\/li>\n
  5. Social relations<\/li>\n
  6. Buddhism<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Article 1:\u00a0 The State[1]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n